


The First Night

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: Radiation Funland [3]
Category: GURPS, Original Work
Genre: Apocalypse, Clowns, Funnily enough the zombies didn't cause the apocalypse, Idk what to tag here, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Violence, POV Multiple, Stormwalkers, The Wasteland, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Zombies, implied/referenced PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 20:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14984984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: Dez watches the first fight with his new motley group of... friends? from a distance, because he can do nothing else. Afterwards, they head inside, even though 'inside' is only moderately safer than out.





	1. The First Fight

At first, he wasn’t sure what the fuss was about. Sure, everything was absolutely terrifying, and sure, they’d just discovered that the old man they’d been having tea with had been nothing more than a pile of bones in the shed, and sure, nothing made any sense, but that hadn’t seemed to stop any of the others from reacting before. Even the clown seemed to understand, to a certain extent, that this was some sort of a normal occurrence out here in The Wasteland. Dez hadn’t been certain what he would wake up to, but he hadn’t expected… any of this.  _ Especially  _ the giant… mutant… thing. The thing reminded him of Lan, of Lan before he’d known him, when he’d just seen him as some sort of monster hell-bent on his destruction. Somehow, the other man --Nick, he’d introduced himself as, Dez would have to remember that-- hadn’t been afraid of the creature, but Dez didn’t trust it as far as he could throw it. Which… wouldn’t be very far, so there you had it. 

When Dez finally pulled himself together enough to drag his sorry ass outside again, he definitely wished that he hadn’t. There were…  _ things _ approaching them, moving supernaturally quickly through the storm. While the mutant and Nick --and the  _ clown _ , for fuck’s sake-- readied themselves for a fight, Dez found himself making himself as small as he possibly could there on the porch. Fear warred with his flight instinct, and he was certain that before this ordeal would be over, he would be dead. 

Except… somehow, he didn’t die. Instead, he could only watch in horrified terror as the mutant ripped apart thing after  _ thing _ , and try not to startle too badly as the sound of Nick’s gunshots filled the air. 

The  _ things _ looked… undead, to say the least, and they didn’t bleed like humans should have. Most of them held some sort of weapon, and they all had water flowing from their mouths and, in many cases, the gaping holes where eyes should have been. 

When the fight was over, it was all Dez could do to drag himself up off the damp porch and offer a hand to the clown, who looked… rather the worse for wear. He was glad that he hadn’t fought, but… He also felt useless. Was this how his life would be, now? 

Damn, he hoped not. 


	2. Inside the House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group heads into the house after the fight. Things really aren't off to a great start here in the Wasteland.

The tiny light is a startling contrast to the darkness inside the house. That is, if I can even call it a house. The place is boarded up and dusty; it looks like it hasn’t been touched in years, and hasn’t been lived in for even longer. I’m honestly surprised it’s still standing. It brings a curious question up about the man lying dead outside, and the pile of bones that seemed to belong to the spectral old man we’d come into contact with earlier. How could he have lived here at all, if everything was so entirely barren. I touch the journal hiding in my coat pocket a little nervously, but it’s still there. It hasn’t faded to dust, which means the man outside is likely still lying there, as freshly-dead as he was when I first came upon him. 

Curiously, I glance towards Nick, only to discover that he has made his way away from the now-chuffing generator to the couch, and that he’s flopped down upon it with a flask of something that I’d bet my left hand was whiskey. It suits him, really. The cowboy aesthetic is more than a little strange for such a barren, terrifying environment, but at least he wasn’t a  _ clown _ . 

Speaking of, the clown is settled on the other side of the sofa from Nick, and has already seemed to have fallen asleep. Strange, strange thing. The mutant still hasn’t come inside. I’m glad for it. I don’t know if I can handle as much, not after watching it rip those water-zombies apart. I realise I don’t even know the names of those two, or of the strangely proper butler that seemed to follow the mutant around. With a sigh, I make my way into the kitchen, and after a long search of what we have --or rather, what we  _ don’t _ have-- I find myself falling asleep on a mouldy mattress on the floor. 

I don’t sleep well. It’s not a surprise. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dez is mine!  
> Nick belongs to @bagobats on tumblr  
> The clown belongs to @mushygreens on tumblr  
> The mutant belongs to @dennibun on tumblr
> 
> Kudos/comments are love. Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans

**Author's Note:**

> Dez and Lan are mine!  
> The clown belongs to @mushygreens on tumblr  
> Nick belongs to @bagobats on tumblr  
> The mutant belongs to @dennibun on tumblr


End file.
